The USDLA is a legitimate association of member institutions that are dedicated to furthering the cause of distance education. USDLA has many useful resources and publications and has started an accreditation program. However, USDLA is not recognized by either the U.S. Dept. of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as an accrediting entity. This is from the USDLA website: Disclaimer: The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) does not accredit, endorse, or speak to the quality of any program for any institution. The student has sole responsibility to verify the claims of any institiution's accrediting service and / or agency that are NOT recognized by the United States Department of Education. (U.S. DOE). For more information on Accreditation, please visit the U.S. Department of Education at http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html?src=qc. For U.S. DOE Regional Accrediting Agencies visit: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg7.html For U.S. DOE National Institutional and Specialized Accrediting Bodies visit: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg8.html For U.S. DOE Accrediting Agencies Recognized for Title IV Purposes visit: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg10.html#TitleIVRecognition I am certain the the USDLA would like to become the recognized professional accrediting for distance learning programs in the same way the the American Psychological Association or the American Bar Association evaluate and recognize programs in their disciplines. It hasn't happened yet.
If an accrediting agency from the United States were genuine, they would themselves be accredited by the United States Department Of Education www.ed.gov and/or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation www.chea.org . The simple answer is: No.
Sometimes, not always accrediting boards are marketing gimmicks to entice Asian students into enrolling with that university. The question is who is monitoring the accreditation boards who sometimes are short of funds and their academicians and bureaucrats are there for the extra remunerated work? It is about time that students or consumers vote with their minds and use common sense judgement on the institutions that they are enrolling with. The fact that some institutions are accredited by state agencies does not mean that they are efficiently managed in some societies. So caveat emptor.
Girish, you can check if your institution is accredited at the ea website: List of all accredited institutions: http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.asp
USDLA is genuine. It has just begun generating its accrediting function, taking over from GATE. Being accredited by the USDLA will have the same sort of meaning as a training company being recognized by PMI to deliver project management-related training. Not "accreditation" in the sense of recognizing credits and degrees. If USDLA extends its accreditation only to schools otherwise accredited by a recognized body, fine. But if it allows other, otherwise non-accredited schools to be USDLA-accredited, there is ample room for abuse. Here's hoping they choose only the former.
There are lots of accreditated schools that have fine administrations and academic departments, but terrible DL delivery. Having the USDLA accrediting DL programs could help reassure prospective students that the school's format is both effective and manageable. And I suppose that the USDLA could extend a different kind of accreditation to education programs that specialize in preparing distance educators. But I think that the USDLA would be making a mistake if it tried to emulate DETC by becoming a stand-alone institutional accreditor for DL-only schools.
